Cristiano Ronaldo is World Soccer’s World Player of the Year for the second year running after a brilliant 12 months for Real Madrid, who won their 10th European Cup in May, with the Portuguese forward scoring in the 4-1 victory over Atletico Madrid in the Final in Lisbon.

Ronaldo, who won the award in 2008 while playing for Manchester United, saw off competition from several of Germany’s victorious World Cup side, as well as his La Liga rival, Argentina star Lionel Messi, who finished in third place.

Four members of Germany’s national side – goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (2nd), forward Thomas Muller (5th), captain Philipp Lahm (6th) and midfielder Toni Kroos (10th) – finished in the top 10 in our annual poll, which is now in its 32nd year.

There was also recognition for Arjen Robben (4th), the star of the Holland side that finished third at the World Cup;, Colombian starlet James Rodriguez (7th), former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez (8th) and Argentina winger Angel Di Maria (9th).

Germany, not surprisingly, claimed the World Team of the Year award, after their victory over Argentina in the World Cup Final and an extraordinary 7-1 demolition of Brazil in the semi-final. Their coach Joachim Low is World Manager of the Year, finishing ahead of Diego Simeone of Atletico Madrid.

The awards were decided by votes from a panel of more than 100 journalists and pundits from around the globe. Members of the panel chose their top 10 players of the year, with points (ranging from one to 10) awarded to each selection.

WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2014
1 Cristiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid & Portugal 928 points

2 Manuel Neuer
Bayern Munich & Germany 789

3 Lionel Messi
Barcelona & Argentina 593

4 Arjen Robben
Bayern Munich & Holland 458

5 Thomas Muller
Bayern Munich & Germany 354

6 Philipp Lahm
Bayern Munich & Germany 264

7 James Rodriguez
Monaco/Real Madrid & Colombia 243

8 Luis Suarez
Liverpool/Barcelona & Uruguay 218

9 Angel Di Maria
Real Madrid/Manchester United & Argentina 183

10 Toni Kroos
Bayern Munich/Real Madrid & Germany 168

11 Neymar
Barcelona & Brazil 166

12 Diego Costa
Atletico Madrid/Chelsea & Spain 146

13 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Paris Saint-Germain & Sweden 138

14 Sergio Aguero
Manchester City & Spain 79

15 Gareth Bale
Real Madrid & Wales 78

16 Sergio Ramos
Real Madrid & Spain 69

17 Bastian Schweinsteiger
Bayern Munich & Germany 61

18 Yaya Toure
Manchester City & Ivory Coast 56

19 Javier Mascherano
Barcelona & Argentina 39

20 Diego Godin
Atletico Madrid & Uruguay 35

21= Thibaut Courtois
Atletico Madrid/Chelsea & Belgium 33

21= Eden Hazard
Chelsea & Belgium 33

23 Mario Gotze
Bayern Munich & Germany 32

24 Karim Benzema
Real Madrid & France 29

25 Alexis Sanchez
Barcelona/Arsenal & Chile 28

26 Franck Ribery
Bayern Munich & France 26

27 Andres Iniesta
Barcelona & Spain 25

28 Paul Pogba
Juventus & France 19

29 Luka Modric
Real Madrid & Croatia 17

30= Vincent Kompany
Manchester City & Belgium 14

30= Carlos Tevez
Juventus & Argentina 14

32 Xabi Alonso
Real Madrid/Bayern Munich & Spain 12

33= Mats Hummels
Borussia Dortmund & Germany 11

33= Andrea Pirlo
Juventus & Italy 11

35 Koke
Atletico Madrid & Spain 10

36 Arda Turan
Atletico Madrid & Turkey 9

37= Robert Lewandowski
Borussia Dortmund/Bayern Munich & Poland 7

37= Pablo Zabaleta
Manchester City & Argentina 7

39= Vincent Enyeama
Lille & Nigeria 6

39= Hector Herrea
Porto & Mexico 6

41= Wayne Rooney
Manchester United & England 5

41= Xavi Hernandez
Barcelona & Spain 5

43= Giancaarlo Gonzalez
Columbus Crew/Palermo & Costa Rica 4

43= Mesut Ozil
Arsenal & Germany 4

43= Thiago Silva
Paris Saint-Germain & Brazil 4

43= Andriy Yarmolenko
Dynamo Kiev & Ukraine 4

47= Ali Ashfaq
PDRM (Mly) & Maldives 3

47= Cesc Fabregas
Barcelona/Chelsea & Spain 3

47= Ivan Rakitic
Sevilla/Barcelona & Croatia 3

47= Raphael Varane
Real Madrid & France 3

47= Daniel Sturridge
Liverpoool & England 3

47= Robin Van Persie
Manchester United & Holland 3

53= Yacine Brahimi
Porto & Algeria 2

53= Luciano Figueroa
Johor Darul Takzim (Mly) 2

53= Keylor Navas
Levante/Real Madrid & Costa Rica 2

53= Arturo Vidal
Juventus & Chile 2

57= David Alaba
Bayern Munich & Austria 1

57= Seamus Coleman
Everton & Republic of Ireland 1

57= Marco Reus
Borussia Dortmund & Germany 1

57= Raheem Sterling
Liverpool & England 1

WORLD MANAGER OF THE YEAR 2014

1 Joachim Low
Germany 45 points

2 Diego Simeone
Atletico Madrid 33

3 Carlo Ancelotti
Real Madrid 15

4 Louis Van Gaal
Holland/Manchester Utd 5

5 Pep Guardiola
Bayern Munich 3

6= Tony Popovic
Western Sydney Wanderers 1

6= Jose Luis Pinto
Costa Rica 1

WORLD TEAM OF THE YEAR 2014

World Cup winners Germany are keen to host the 2024 European Championsships.

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